Self-esteem and outcome fairness: Differential importance of procedural and outcome considerations

Results of a survey of 222 detainees in Dutch jails and police stations sho wed that outcome-fairness judgments of individuals with high self-esteem we re more strongly related to outcome considerations than to procedural consi derations, whereas outcome-fairness judgments of individuals with low self- esteem were more strongly related to procedural considerations than to outc ome considerations. It was proposed that these differences were due to the fact that (a) procedures more strongly express a social evaluation than out comes and (b) individuals with low self-esteem are more concerned with soci al evaluations than individuals with high self-esteem. The implications of the results for other individual-differences factors and other populations than detainees are discussed.